Saturday, September 26, 2009

Police ready to 'take on' commenters, chief says: "He said investigators might seek search warrants or subpoenas from judges to learn the identities of the authors — he thinks some could be department employees — and possibly sue them for libel or file charges if investigators think a crime was committed."-------------This could get a little dicey. There is this inconvenient legal provision known as the First Amendment, and it gives people quite a lot of latitude, especially where criticism of public officials is involved.

Alcohol may protect the brain during an accident - CNN.com: "It's not clear why alcohol might be helpful, although it could dampen the impact of catecholamines, hormones like adrenaline and dopamine that are released by the body after a traumatic injury, according to Salim. 'We think [the blood alcohol] may attenuate that response,' he says.

Alcohol may also help lower the body's core temperature, says David Hovda, Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the director of UCLA's Brain Injury Research Center. Lower body temperatures are known to slow cell death and swelling caused by severe brain injuries."------------It seems that often the drunk driver lives and the sober people in the other car die. Can it be that the alcohol protects the drunk's brain?

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it 'Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold.'"-----------------------

Steven and girlfriend Kathryn's base - under Caesar's Palace casino - is one of the most elaborate. They even have a kettle and a makeshift shower fabricated out of an office drinking water dispenser."---------------I guess it's a trade off. You have to put up with deadly spiders and the risk of floods. But on the other hand, you have no mortgage and no HOA.

Daily Herald | Charges tossed out against woman who took dog waste drop box: "Carrie Fosdale of Algonquin is criminally off the hook now that the McHenry County State's Attorney has agreed to drop a theft charge against her. When her townhouse association wouldn't move a dog waste container from near her home, she removed it herself."-----------So the prosecutors dumped the charges, so to speak.Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link.

Municipal Judge Brooke Peterson told the dog's owner, Melinda Goldrich, that if the dog is seen again in Aspen, it will be rounded up by animal control officers and put to death."------------And stay out!

Hit & Run > Corpse of a Thousand Houses - Reason Magazine: "All signs point to a new flood of real estate foreclosures that no amount of government sandbagging will prevent. Sources of trouble:"-----------------And check out the comments to the Reason article for discussion of the coming commercial real estate collapse that I have been talking about here for some time.

Sales, which were still up 3.4 percent from a year earlier, had been expected to rise to an annual pace of 5.35 million, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters."----------More evidence that the ballyhooed "recovery" may be the middle hump on a W.

HOA Tacking On $4,000 Fee To Sold Homes - News Story - WFTV Orlando: "ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Orange County homeowners' association (HOA) is taking some drastic measures to make up its financial shortfall. The HOA at Stoneybrook East and West is tacking on a new $4,000 fee for foreclosed homes sold in the subdivision."-----------The stated rationale: "Jim Gustino represents Stoneybrook's HOA and he says there has always been a $1,000 fee, but they upped it $3,000 to recoup losses and get the bank's attention. "Try to spur the banks to complete foreclosures in a reasonable period of time. Properties neglected that are a blight to the community bring in families who pay dues," Gustino said."

Research using a massive sample of 24 million individual credit files has found that homeowners with high scores when they apply for a loan are 50% more likely to 'strategically default' -- abruptly and intentionally pull the plug and abandon the mortgage -- compared with lower-scoring borrowers."----------------------The researchers say 18% of all serious delinquencies are strategic defaults.

Inspections are not free. Nor is fixing the inevitable violations. Compliance with new energy-efficiency standards would make homes, especially older ones, more expensive. Selling one’s home would become even harder than it already is in this down market if Waxman-Markey-style cap and trade becomes law."----------------Unintended consequences: the must invariable and fundamental law of public policy research.

LA passes law limiting roosters to 1 per household: "The City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance that—with few exceptions—allows only one rooster per property. It was spurred by complaints over noise and hygiene and concerns over illegal cockfighting."------------------------I lived in LA for quite a few years and never heard a cock crowing. Times must be changing.

The agency is considering borrowing billions from healthy banks. Alternatively, it may impose a special fee on the banking industry."------------------Let me get this right here--instead of the FDIC bailing the banks, the banks are going to bail out the FDIC? At some point doesn't this just amount to nationalization?

“The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act,” Dr. Chu said. “The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is.” (In that case, the Energy Department has a few renegade teens of its own.)"---------------So you get out of that car and ride a bike to work or you are grounded!

However, a last minute compromise is keeping the water on. It's good news for the residents of the condo complex.

Many residents were making arraignments to move or find a temporary place to live. It took a $10,000 check to bring them peace of mind.

The Toho Water Authority threatened to turn the water off, because the condo association hasn't paid the water bill in seven months. The water bill had climbed to $48,000. The condo association hired a lawyer over the weekend, who was able to make a deal with Toho Water Authority, and they set up a payment plan."-----------------That's good for the residents, but they need to do something about being dependent on the association for access to water.

Not so much.Latif is one of the leading climate modellers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC's last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously.

Yet last week in Geneva, at the UN's World Climate Conference--an annual gathering of the so-called "scientific consensus" on man-made climate change --Latif conceded the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures cool."--------------------But someday the world will end in a heat wave anyway.

Immigration Status Checks Anger Some Residents | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth: "The property owners of a Grand Prairie mobile home park are testing federal law by requiring an immigration check on anyone who lives there."-------------Wow. Watch this. The association is dealing with the problem of illegal immigration at the very, very, local level--its own way. I can envision a civil rights lawsuit against the association hitting the courthouse at some point in the near future. Thanks to Bill Davis for this link.

At age 87, she can't open a jar, has taken nasty spills just walking around the house and doesn't even trust herself to drive beyond her neighborhood, the age-restricted Sunland Village in Mesa. The perfect solution seemed to come by having her 37-year-old grandson live with her as a caregiver.

Campbell's homeowners association says she can have somebody live with her - just not her grandson. The homeowner association rules let an adult child live with a parent who is 55 or older - but not a grandchild."----------------Is it possible for an HOA to exceed this level of absurdity? The bar has now been set very high. Thanks to Beth for this link.

The Myth of Public Agency protection in the Building Permit Process: "t is commonly perceived that the building permits that are routinely issued by city building inspectors for construction work certify that the building or 'work of improvement' is quality built, safely constructed, and that all of the relevant building and state Health & Safety Code requirements have been met. The reality behind what a building permit represents, however, is quite different. Under current statutory schemes, local municipalities and city public agencies are essentially stripped of any responsibility for the work performed by their building inspector employees and the permits that these inspectors issue. In truth, a building permit is little more than a statement by the local municipality that the homeowner or developer who contracted for the work of improvement has paid the requisite fees to the local city housing authorities. A building permit does not represent that the construction that was undertaken is safe and free from defects or that all of the necessary building codes have been strictly complied with."-------------Great article by attorney Jan Kopczynski of Berding & Weil. For HOA and condo owners, it means they shouldn't think a new building is necessarily well-built. Guess who is ultimately responsible for all the problems, unless they can successfully sue the developer? That's right. The owners. Thanks to Fred Fischer for the link.

The zombietime Hall of ShameNancy Pelosi and a whole lot of other Democrats and media talking heads are boo-hooing and tut-tutting about how "extreme" the anti-Obama rhetoric is. Fine. Good point. But where were these complaints of extreme rhetoric during the Bush administration, when there was a tsunami of the most horrific political rhetoric this country has seen in decades? Take a look at these photos, all taken at demonstrations in Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco. Tell me: which is more extreme--the Tea Parties or these photos from lefty demos?

The spawning of RedSpeed may represent a textbook example of how to cash in on this state's clubby intersection of public policy and clout. But it's an Illinois story with an unusual foreign accent.

The ownership of RedSpeed is obscured in public records, but the firm is part of a closely held Israeli-owned conglomerate that does most of its business in Kazakhstan, the former Soviet Republic that Americans perhaps know best -- maybe unfairly -- from the mockumentary 'Borat.'"---------------This is incredible. Local governments in Illinois are ripping off the citizenry by allowing this corporation to manufacture red light violations.

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room: "The president said he is 'happy to look at' bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses."------------This proposal is astounding. News organizations get to become tax-exempt institutions that people can make tax deductible contributions to? People like...oh, I don't know...maybe George Soros?

Undead COBOL celebrates (another) 50th birthday • The Register: "So many other languages have come and gone over the past five decades - including MANTIS, FORTRAN, MUMPS, Forte, and Smalltalk - but COBOL refuses to die. In May, the UK-based business software outfit MicroFocus said the average American relies on COBOL at least 13 times a day while making phone calls, using credit cards, and commuting to work - among other mundane tasks.

Of course, much of this down to inertia. COBOL has long run systems inside banks and network operators, so it continues to run systems inside banks and network operators.

'COBOL can trace its origins to the very start of the computer age, yet its applications continue to deliver to businesses and the public sector every single day,' reads a birthday card from MicroFocus CTO Stuart McGill."-------------The computer language that refuses to die. I learned COBOL in 1971. It was old then.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Scientists make paralysed rats run again: "'We are now designing neuro-prostheses, arrays of electrodes that fit like a second skin between the vertebrae and the spinal cord,' Courtine explained. A strip measuring three centimetres (1.2 inches) long and one hundredth of a centimetre thick, the device is described as 'minimally invasive' because it does not penetrate into the spinal cord. Courtine and colleagues are currently testing the neuro-prostheses on rats, and expect to have an interface for humans within four years. The new technique is designed to help patients with incomplete but severe injuries, such as those who cannot walk independently."----------------What a wonderful thing it would be if paralyzed people could walk again. And this technology doesn't involve stem cells as far as I can understand.

So, just go ahead and clear them, right? Wrong. The land is owned and controlled by a homeowner’s association, the Community Association of Bernardo Heights. Wolf says despite repeated requests and complaints, the CABH refuses to do proper brush clearance on the land."----------The Fire Department says 100 feet should be cleared around properties like this, but the HOA sees it differently.

Wilson, 69, is accused of walking into the Bank of America branch in the 4100 block of El Cajon Boulevard in City Heights and handing a bank manager a demand note, saying he had a bomb. Prosecutors said he made off with $107,000 before he was caught lying on a front porch near the bank."------------------That amount would cover quite a few house payments.

Dialing 911? That'll Be $200, Please | NBC New YorkThe bankrupt city of Vallejo, CA, has had enough of unnecessary 911 calls. If you call 911 and hang up, then don't answer the callback and they have to send the cops to check it out, you pay $200. Seems fair enough to me. But keep an eye on your 5 year old! If you think kids are expensive now...

About Me

I am a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an adjunct professor at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Nothing contained in this blog represents the opinions of UIC or John Marshall, and nothing you see here is legal advice. You can reach me at ecmlaw@gmail.com